


For Informational Purposes

by dataghosts



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: M/M, Sensual Tension, Tattoos, Touch-Starved, constructing intricate rituals to touch the skin of other men (they're not even that intricate)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-07 00:26:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20300431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dataghosts/pseuds/dataghosts
Summary: "I was wondering about the rest of your tattoos, I mean."Gerry looks like he’s been jolted out of some thoughts, but recovers quickly. "Okay, well, there's one on each joint, so most of them are on my hands and down my spine, and then there's –""– one just over your heart," Jon finishes softly. When Gerry raises his eyebrows in surprise, Jon looks away. "Er, I mean, the heart isn't exactly a joint, is it –"Jon asks to take a look at Gerry's tattoos.





	For Informational Purposes

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate summary: Stuffy Nerd Asks Cool Goth To Show Him His Tattoos, What Happens Next Will Surprise basically just him actually
> 
> Set in some kind of "season 3-ish but Gerry is there and everything is more chill probably" thing, you know how it is, don't worry about it

Gerry has been unofficially working with the archives team for a while now, and now that Jon gets to see him regularly they’ve established something of a habit. Every now and then, Jon will have a question about something supernatural, and when he gets the chance to ask Gerry about it they end up heading over to Jon’s office, sitting down, and having a nice long chat about all the various things Gerry knows about that world.

Jon had been worried Gerry would become irritated at Jon pumping him for information, but fortunately he hasn’t been coming off that way. The conversations are all casual and easy as they meander through related topics, and Jon has some stories of his own to share by now. Gerry clearly enjoys the chance to be able to frankly talk about the things he’s dealt with his whole life with someone who’s not keeping him imprisoned in a book to do so. Jon even tries to avoid using compulsion, not wanting to sour Gerry on him, and knowing that Gerry is still willing to answer most of his questions without it.

And these sessions are...nice. Gerry is easy to talk to. Jon doesn't have to struggle to come up with things to say, or worry that Gerry will miss his admittedly dry humor. Social interactions don’t come naturally to Jon when it comes to most people, but it's really a marvel at how he and Gerry had slipped into such an easy camaraderie from the very first time they'd talked. Jon has somehow managed to not screw it up as time’s gone on, even. And with each of these sessions Jon ends up trying to find ways to prolong the conversation – he's stopped pretending it's just to get as much information as he can anymore. He can admit he just enjoys spending time with Gerry. They're friends.

It's toward the tail end of one of these sessions that Gerry ends up telling Jon about the reason he has his eye tattoos. Jon listens raptly to the explanation, but during it he ends up staring at Gerry's hands, trying to actually get a look at them. The eye symbols are pretty small – even from where Jon is sitting they barely look like more than black smudges. (_Most of the statement givers didn't even mention them, the only one that did was the nurse who had reason to look closely and even she didn't realize what they were at first_, part of Jon's mind supplies. The part that still has memorized what used to be the scant facts he knew about Gerard Keay as he tried to piece together the mystery of the man. Is it creepy to remember now that he knows him in person?) Jon can't believe Gerry has actually been his friend for a while now and he still hasn't gotten a good look at the tattoos.

As Gerry wraps up the explanation, Jon hesitantly asks, "Could I take a look?"

Gerry shrugs and says "sure" with an easy grin, stretching his arm out across the desk and dangling his fingers like he's showing off his nail polish. (It could use a touch up.) Jon peers at the marks on them but it's still hard to make them out clearly, so he takes Gerry's hand in his and holds it up closer to his face.

Gerry lets out a sudden exhale of breath and Jon lets go instantly. "Oh – sorry, should I not have done that - "

"No, it's fine," Gerry interrupts him. "I just. Don't get touched often, I guess. Go ahead."

_Ah._ Jon understands the feeling well. He gives a sympathetic nod and smile to Gerry and picks his hand back up, more gingerly this time. Gerry's hands are calloused, but not dry and scratchy, and nicely cool. Jon stares at them for a few seconds, forgetting to actually focus on anything, before he thinks to take off his glasses to do so. Gerry makes a “hmm” noise at that. "Haven't seen you without those before," he comments. Then a small sly grin creeps into his voice. "Doesn't diminish the elderly librarian look as much as you'd have thought."

"Yes, well, while my patron hasn't deigned to give me better literal physical eyesight, I'm stuck with them anyway," Jon replies dryly, looking up at a blurry Gerry with a raised eyebrow. Gerry snorts, and Jon averts his gaze to look back at the hand currently in his.

Okay, now he's finally getting a good look at the tattoos. He can see the eye symbol clearly – it's a pretty simple rendering, the classic pointed oval with a pupil in the middle, three eyelash lines on both the top and bottom. He spends a moment each on the ones on every finger joint, then carefully rotates the hand back and forth a bit until he spots the one for the wrist (it's on the underside, right below the little valley in the middle of the base of his palm). As he's doing this, it strikes Jon that the pupils of the eyes somehow constantly seem to be looking directly at him no matter the angle. Well, that's mildly disconcerting, but really par for the course these days.

Returning Gerry's hand to its original position, Jon brushes his thumb against one of the tattoos testingly. He doesn't feel anything special from it – but he hears Gerry hold his breath. Jon tries the same with another tattoo just in case, but still nothing. It's at this point that the thought occurs to him that without his glasses he's holding Gerry's hand very close to his face, closer than necessary probably. Close enough it'd be easy to kiss it – what is he thinking. Does he expect the tattoo to _taste_ like anything? Oh, he should stop this.

"Well, that was, ah, interesting. Thank you," Jon says as he puts his glasses back on with one hand and lowers the one holding Gerry's back down onto the table. He doesn't pull it away, though.

"No problem," Gerry says casually. He hasn't withdrawn his hand from Jon's yet either.

Neither of them move or say anything else for a second. Generally if neither person has anything left to say it means the conversation is ending, that's how conversations work. But Jon is hesitant to let Gerry go.

"Where are the rest," he blurts out. "I was wondering about the rest of your tattoos, I mean."

Gerry looks like he’s been jolted out of some thoughts, but recovers quickly. "Okay, well, there's one on each joint, so most of them are on my hands and down my spine, and then there's – "

"– one just over your heart," Jon finishes softly. When Gerry raises his eyebrows in surprise, Jon looks away. "Er, I mean, the heart isn't exactly a joint, is it – "

"It's more of a symbolic thing," Gerry says, tilting his head thoughtfully. "Anyway, it's right around..." he peers down, and finally detaches his hand from Jon's to draw a vague circle with his finger on his chest, "...here somewhere."

Jon nods, missing Gerry's hand in his already. His arm feels awkward still stretched out to the middle of the table, but he has some foolish hope Gerry might put his hand back. "Um, and I was also curious if they're all the same all over your body? If some are bigger, or more detailed, that sort of thing."

"They're all basically the same, I think? I mean, you can still take a look if you’re curious anyway. Want me to take my shirt off?”

Jon isn’t prepared for how casually Gerry offered this. “I– uh– um– yes, that’d be helpful,” he manages to get out. "For – for informational purposes,” he starts trying to justify. “I'm also an avatar of the eye, after all – " he isn't actually sure where he's going with this point so he lets it trail off. "You don't have to do it if you're uncomfortable." But oh, yes he does want to see the other tattoos, wants to know exactly where each one is, wants to see them for himself.

Gerry is clearly smirking at Jon’s flusteredness. “Nah, nah, I don’t mind.” He pauses. “Are _you_ uncomfortable though?”

Jon wonders how red his face is. “Not at all.” He tries to go for a joke. “I’ve seen some gruesome things in my research here, I can live with seeing a shirtless man.”

“Ouch, don’t know how I feel about that comparison,” Gerry says with a small laugh, but he’s already standing up and shrugging off his coat, then pulling off his shirt. While Jon is still processing the fact that this is actually happening, Gerry has already made his way around the desk to come closer to Jon. "Gonna squint at me without your glasses again?"

_Oh _Gerry is right there, and he’s not wearing a shirt, and Jon has to look at him. He doesn’t feel...whatever people are supposed to feel seeing “hot” shirtless men, he can admit, not that he ever has, not that he even knows if Gerry would be considered “hot”. He can take note of how Gerry is, in fact, surprisingly toned – not buff exactly, but with a certain wiry strength it’s hard to expect from seeing him clothed. It feels like a discovery Jon is making now, but it makes sense, Gerry has probably had to get into some physical scraps with monsters in his days. Jon certainly wouldn't be good at that. (That one part of his brain provides some citations from the statements again of narrators similarly being taken aback by Gerry being strong.)

But what’s really striking to him is the unexpected intimacy of the moment. (Does Gerry even see it as such, with how nonchalantly he offered? Is he still as nonchalant right now?) Jon has never seen this much of Gerry before. Hell, he’s only occasionally seen his bare arms exposed with just a T-shirt, but now...so much, and it’s all _Gerry_. It feels like he’s taken off his armor, in more ways than one. Without quite so much black and leather, he doesn’t look quite so hard-edged and standoffish. It’s like seeing an angle of Gerry that Jon hasn’t seen before, not just skin. Though there certainly is a lot of it, and Jon could just reach out and touch…

“I think the glasses are going to be fine,” Jon remembers to make himself say. If he takes them off he’d have to bring his face that close to Gerry’s _body,_ not just his hands, and that would be… uncomfortable for both of them, probably. He forces himself to focus, and stands up out of his chair to have the tattoos closer to eye level. There's the eye over his heart (the urge to press his palm over it), there's the ones on his shoulders (the urge to press his lips to them). It's a relief that looking at the tattoos means Jon doesn't have to look Gerry in the eyes. Not that he can see them in that close detail, they're still pretty small, but Jon can just take Gerry's word for it that there isn't much different to see in the design.

As Jon circles around to the back (and experiences the rush of seeing a new part of Gerry again), Gerry sweeps his hair over one shoulder and Jon has to blink quickly several times as he sees there is indeed a smooth line of tattoos all the way down his spine, starting at his hairline and continuing all the way down to the waistline of his jeans. Jon’s hands finally betray him as he reaches out, yearning to run his fingers down the line, but he stops himself just in time before making contact. Did Gerry notice – ?

“Go ahead,” Gerry says softly, though he’s still looking straight forward. Jon jumps a little, embarrassed, but can’t pretend he isn’t grateful. He nods in thanks, feels silly for doing so as Gerry can’t see him anyway, and does a nonverbal hum of acknowledgment instead. Then he finally, hesitantly, stretches out his hand and gently touches the pad of a fingertip to Gerry’s top vertebra, then lets it trail down.

Gerry lets out a soft gasp, and arches his back just as Jon is getting to the small of it. “Wow, yeah, I’m really touch-starved,” Gerry murmurs. “You didn’t do anything wrong, don’t worry.” More hesitantly, “You can touch more if you want.”

That’s a very dangerous offer for Jon right now. “Do you want...a hug?” he offers. It seems like the most normal option here, as well as the most effective. And Jon could really appreciate a hug himself, if he’s being honest. He doesn’t get that many positive touches either.

“That does sound really good, yeah.” And then Gerry is turned around, his arms wrapped around Jon and his head buried in his shoulder. Jon’s own body takes a moment to scream at the sudden flood of contact, but soon he’s wrapping his own arms around Gerry (palms on his bare back, oh that’s so much skin). He closes his eyes takes a deep breath, reveling in the closeness, the brush of Gerry’s hair against his face. Gerry has leaned his weight on him, so Jon leans in too and relaxes. Is that – oh, he can feel Gerry’s heartbeat against his chest. The intimacy strikes him again, as well as appreciation for the fact that Gerry is alive, he’s here with Jon.

They stay there for a good long while, barely moving except for the rise and fall of their breathing. Finally, Gerry is the one to pull away, looking at Jon with a small smile. “Okay uh, I should probably put my shirt back on now,” he says. “Thanks for that. That hug was –” he fumbles briefly, looks off to the side – “really nice.”

As Gerry is looking away, Jon’s eye catches on the black mark at the edge of his face near his ear. “Oh, forgot the jaw is also a joint,” he says with a small chuckle as he realizes, “there’s another tattoo there.” They’re still standing pretty close from the hug, it would be so easy to – “Can I take a look?”

Gerry nods, and it’s so simple for Jon to just reach out and brush Gerry’s hair back behind his ear, brushing against one of the piercings, and step closer to close that distance between them again. He hears Gerry fighting to keep his breath even, and tries to calm his own too. His hand lingers on Gerry’s shoulder where it came down. It feels right to still be so close, feeling the warmth coming off his skin even if they’re not hugging anymore. Jon does bring his face close to the tattoo this time, though his glasses bump up against Gerry’s cheek.

It’s just that same symbol of an eye that Jon spent so long staring at on Gerry’s hands. He doesn’t really know what else he expected to see here. Jon glares at the tattoo, wishing it had secrets to reveal to him so he didn’t have to move.

“See anything interesting there?” Gerry says, speaking softly with his face so close to Jon’s ear. Jon startles, and turns his face to look at Gerry, but he barely moves away, and then –

Jon is pretty sure it’s Gerry that leans in for the kiss first, but as soon as Jon’s body registers what’s happening he is leaning in himself before he’s even conscious of what he’s doing. And then his consciousness is taken up by the overwhelming fact that _oh, he is kissing Gerry_, that first moment where everything seems to go absolutely still except for the press of their lips against each other. Then Jon brings the hand that was on Gerry’s shoulder up to the back of his neck, tangling it in his hair and pulling Gerry closer to deepen the kiss, and Gerry melts against him and brings his own arms up to wrap around Jon, and Jon snakes his own second arm around to the small of Gerry’s back, and they’re holding each other closer than even before, and Jon can’t imagine letting go.

It’s hard to tell how long they have been kissing when it still feels too short when they eventually pull apart. They stay in a loose hug, though, looking at each other with matching helpless smiles, Gerry’s arms loosely wrapped around Jon’s neck now while Jon’s are at his waist. “So, did you find out what you wanted about my tattoos?” Gerry asks with a gleam in his eye.

Jon gives a breathy laugh. “I think we both certainly found out a lot of things.” Gerry rolls his eyes at him, but hasn't stopped smiling. He presses one more short kiss to Jon’s lips – too short – and finally peels out of the embrace to go put his shirt back on. Jon feels the abrupt chill as he leaves and hates it.

As he watches Gerry getting dressed, a thought strikes him. It feels – a little silly. But he wants to try it very badly before the moment passes. “Can I, ah, try one more thing, actually?” he says, starting to walk back towards Gerry.

Gerry tilts his head as he shrugs into his coat. “I mean, sure?” So Jon reaches out to catch one of his hands in his. He keeps his eyes focused on the hand, feeling a little nervous even knowing what the two of them have just been doing a minute prior. And then he brings Gerry's hand up to his face, and gently presses a kiss across the middle knuckle.

Gerry raises his eyebrows and gives a low whistle. A second or so passes. Jon pulls away.

“Huh. So the tattoos don’t taste like anything after all.”

Gerry bursts out laughing.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! you can find me on tumblr @[gerrykeay](https://gerrykeay.tumblr.com/)


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